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New Year’s Resolution Status: Kept

Last December, House Republicans announced their New Year’s Resolution for Economic Opportunity at a State Capitol press conference:

“Our resolution – and we are absolutely intent on keeping it – is that Republicans are not going to make it more expensive to be a job provider in Minnesota,” said House Republican Minority Leader Kurt Zellers.

“When a small business owner tells you he will be hit by the Democrats’ income tax increase, it gets your attention,” said Representative Keith Downey (Edina) of the Democrats’ plan to create a new 9-percent income tax bracket.

Once again during this year’s legislative session, Democrats proposed raising taxes, as they have in the past. House Republicans kept to their resolution and protected Minnesota businesses, families and some of the best Minneapolis restaurants from higher taxes.

The purpose of the Republicans’ resolution was to ease the “pandemic of uncertainty” that lingers over businesses — uncertainty created by government, as Ron Scherer of the Christian Science Monitor points out:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represents larger corporations, says a lot of the uncertainty for its members is Washington-generated.

“Tell me what my taxes will be as a company,” says Bruce Josten, the chamber’s executive vice president for government affairs in Washington. “No one can tell me.”

And to no one’s surprise, Obamacare isn’t helping.

It’s not just taxes, says Josten. Businesses are still unsure how much the new health-care reform bill will cost them, he says. “Many companies are finding their premiums are rising,” he says. “Companies like some certainty on fixed costs.”

House Republicans also offered ideas to send a different message to job creators: Government will get out of your pocket and off your back so you can expand.